Camel Back Riding and Real Mexican Food at Los Cabos, Mexico

The most interesting part of the trip beyond the picturesque beaches of Los Cabos, Mexico was camel back riding with Cabo Adventures. This particular activity is part of this company’s Outback and Camel Safari where we travel in one large group from various hotels around the area and eventually divided up into small groups (about 12 people) to Rancho San Cristobal, about a 20-minute drive from their home base at the marina.

My group with other tourists

This was my fun group along with two couples from Latin America who are visiting Cabo.

Camels’ day off (left photo) and one that was working today

This isn’t Dubai or the Middle East…

We met our expert guides and camel assistants who worked with the camels. Prior to hopping onto our dromedary camel, we have to sport on helmuts fashioned with what looks like keffiyeh to protect the mouth and eyes from blown dust and sand.

For each camel, it sat two persons. With our headgear on and gripping on firmly to the camel’s saddle, we rode – with the assistance of our guides (sigh of relief, as it’s my first time riding this animal). The camel trotted on with its slow yet even pace and us looking at our surroundings of dessert (sand and cacti) and the captivating, powerful yet graceful waves of the Pacific.

…a walk in the desert. Thankfully, our gregarious guide Jose Luis kept our tour relatively short since this is the peak of summer in Cabo and it does gets pretty darn hot out here. Anyway, we seen two main types of cacti Cardón (the world’s tallest cactus) and saguaro, agave plants, a dragon blood tree, and one blossoming tree.

Making fresh tortillas for lunch

As we’re getting famished, we loaded back into the truck and off to a few open cabins that is cooking up a traditional Mexican lunch. What fascinates me was the woman who was cranking out freshly made tortillas for all of us, from the pressing of masa dough, flipping of the tortillas and setting aside for us to enjoy. I was excited and salivating for freshly made tortillas.

The different dishes that make up my lunch plate (as seen on last photo)

We’ve been informed of the dishes served to us, served in heavy clay pots. There’s rice, creamy refried beans, Mexican-style scrambled eggs that’s heavily studded in bell peppers, potatoes, and carrots and simmering in a light tomato sauce, and the chicken mole. We had a refreshing side dish of cactus salad and the condiments were an addictively smoky chipotle sauce and a mild pepper sauce.

Jose Luis demonstrating how to make masa

After we finished lunch, we strolled over several yards away to another area for our tequila and mezcal tasting and tortilla making.

Our guide half jokingly informed us that, within the traditional Mexican family, young women who know how to make corn tortillas from scratch are ready to get married. He briefly showed us the general idea that in order to make masa (corn tortilla dough) is to soak the corn kernels in lime overnight and grind the kernels superfine with a stone mano and metate.

Tequilas and mezcal to taste

After some joking with the recently married couple from Columbia, Jose Luis started to talk generally about tequila. Tequila is primarily made from the blue agave plant and can be produced between 35–55% alcohol content. We tried the blanco (“white”) a white spirit, un-aged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation and the reposado (“rested”), which is aged a minimum of two months, but less than a year in oak barrels of any size. Both were strong but not the most potent I’ve dipped my lips in. The mezal is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant (a form of agave) native to Mexico and most mezcal is made in Oaxaca. The one we sipped did have the strong smoky flavor but it’s not unpalatable.

We all climbed back onto the truck, toasted to our new friend, Jose Luis and for the good times we had on this safari with beer and mezcal.

To view more of my photos of this meal and the safari, please scroll through the slideshow below (or click through my Flickr set):